Mobile machines, such as off highway trucks, excavators, tractors, motor graders, wheel loaders, scrapers and the like often operate in an environment characterized by airborne debris, including particles such as dust. The airborne debris is directed by the cooling fan of the machine through the radiator. The debris collects on the radiator and, over time, restricts air flow through the radiator and thus reduces the efficacy of the radiator.
Therefore, the operator must manually clean the radiator to prevent excessive accumulation of debris. Cleaning the radiator typically involves spraying a fluid such as water into a first side of the radiator that faces the engine and a second side opposite the first.
To access the radiator for cleaning in some prior art machines, the operator must raise an engine hood to its open position. If the hood is a large one which covers the engine and the radiator, opening the hood frequently to clean the radiator can be cumbersome and time-consuming. A machine with a very large hood may require a powered actuator to open the hood. Opening a hood with a powered actuator can be especially time consuming. In some instances, radiator cleaning can be further compounded since tilting the hood to an open position can sometimes only give good access to one side of the radiator.
In some prior art machines, a radiator grill is pivotable about a vertical axis to provide access to the second side of the radiator, i.e., the side of the radiator that faces away from the engine. Accordingly, to clean the radiator, first the entire engine hood is raised to spray the first side of the radiator, then the hood is lowered and the radiator grill is pivoted to clear debris from the second side of the radiator. If debris inadvertently re-enters the radiator when the second side of the radiator is being cleared, then the entire hood must be raised again to repeat the step of spraying the first side of the radiator. Thus in some instances, a pivoting grill provides access only to the second side, and the first side is only accessible by raising the hood, but both procedures need to be done in order to thoroughly clean the radiator. These respective events may be further complicated in some instances since the radiator may only be pivoted when the hood is lowered.
Some prior art vehicles include small access panels that allow rapid access to limited parts of the engine and radiator. For example, Best discloses an access panel in U.S. Pat. No. 2,132,926 that provides access to a water fill tube and an oil fill tube in an automobile. Hansen discloses an access panel in U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,045 that provides access to the side of a radiator that faces away from an engine. However, the access panels disclosed by Best and Hansen do not provide rapid access to all parts of a radiator necessary to clean the radiator of debris.
The present disclosure is directed to one or more of the problems set forth above.